Messaging systems constitute a wide variety of technological systems that are provided by numerous different vendors. Accordingly, systems for linking different technological systems have been developed. For example, the voice mail industry adopted the Audio Messaging Interchange Specification (AMIS) standard for exchanging messages between different voice mail systems. AMIS addresses the problem of inter-networking voice mail systems produced by different vendors.
There are two specifications for AMIS. One called AMIS-Analog uses dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones to convey control information in analog transmissions of voice mail messages. Particularly, in the analog standard, AMIS defines a messaging standard where one voice mail system dials a second voice mail system and plays back DTMF codes from the message header that identifies the target mailbox. Then, the second voice mail system plays back the message to be delivered.
An AMIS-compatible message contains a standard header that includes address information such as the dial-in number of the addressee's voice mail system, the addressee's mailbox number, etc. By recording and storing the received message in the format native to the receiving system, the issue of incompatible message file formats is avoided.
The analog AMIS protocol is simpler and less capable than the second AMIS specification, AMIS-Digital. AMIS-Digital is based on completely digital interaction between two voice messaging systems. Control information and the voice message itself is conveyed between systems in digital form. By contrast, the AMIS-Analog specification calls for the use of DTMF tones to convey control information, and transmission of the message itself is in analog form.
The AMIS-Digital specification is more robust than AMIS-Analog, providing a combination of features from the X.400 messaging recommendation and features commonly available in voice mail systems. For example, it supports features such as inclusion of a message originator's spoken name, and message addressing options such as delivery notification, confidential message, and future delivery.
Building upon the AMIS-Digital standard, Voice Profile for Internet Messaging (VPIM) is a proposed Internet messaging protocol to allow disparate voice mail systems to exchange voice mail over the Internet. VPIM builds on Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Multi-purpose Internet Message Extensions (MIME) standards. These in turn are built upon the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) infrastructures for email interchange to allow standardized exchange of voice and fax messages among servers.
By supporting the AMIS and VPIM standards, for example, today's leading voice mail messaging providers are developing systems that can communicate and interact with systems from other providers. However, with a network involving different messaging technologies provided by different vendors, there is a problem in ensuring that the performance of the network is satisfactory. For example, even though an intended voice mail message may be delivered to its intended recipient, the transmission time to complete the delivery may not be satisfactory. Further, in addition to problems involved with networks of similar technology, diagnosing the source of network transmission problems in a network containing a wide variety of technologies is difficult without a good testing and error detection process. For instance, systematic manual testing of network components is very time consuming and limited.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned and other deficiencies and inadequacies.